Rotation Overview
Quick start guide to Keeper Password Rotation
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KeeperPAM and Secrets Manager
Quick start guide to Keeper Password Rotation
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An active license is required in order to use the features available with KeeperPAM. This license is available for both business and enterprise customers.
Prior to setting up password rotation, make sure to have the following set up:
Enforcement policies for KeeperPAM password rotation are managed in the Keeper Admin Console under Admin > Roles > Enforcement Policies > Privileged Access Manager.
For Password Rotation capabilities, enable the necessary policies:
Can create applications and manage secrets
Allow users to create a Secrets Manager Application
Can create, deploy and manage Keeper Gateways
Allow users to deploy and manage a Keeper Gateway
Can configure rotation settings
Allow users to set up rotation on a PAM User record
Can configure rotation settings (legacy setting)
This should be set the same as ALLOW_PAM_ROTATION
Can rotate credentials
All users to perform a password rotation action
When you use the Gateway using the Create New > Gateway feature, Keeper will automatically create the Secrets Manager Application, Shared Folders and PAM Configuration. In the Secrets Manager section of the vault, you'll see the Application assigned to Shared Folders and also assigned to the Gateway.
A PAM Resource represents a Machine, Database or Directory.
When you have activated Keeper Secrets Manager or KeeperPAM, the following new record types will be available to users:
PAM User Contains a login / password, private key, or both.
PAM Directory Information about your on-prem or cloud-based directory
PAM Database Self-hosted or managed cloud-based databases such as MySQL, SQL Server, etc.
PAM Machine Windows, Linux, macOS machines on-prem or in the cloud
PAM Remote Browser Remote browser isolation to protect web-based applications
All 5 record types can be added in the Vault, placed in folders, and shared like any other Keeper records.
When rotation is activated, within the Secrets Manager screen of the vault you'll see a section called PAM Configurations. A PAM Configuration is an object which is contains the following:
Environment Local Network, AWS or Azure
Keeper Gateway Service which you install into your on-prem or cloud infrastructure
Application Folder Shared Folder which contains the Secrets Manager application and associated records
Administrative Credentials Keeper record which contains privileged credentials for performing rotation and discovery.
Customers may have any number of PAM Configurations, Applications and Gateways.
The basic steps to rotation of passwords in any target environment are:
Add PAM User records to the Shared Folder
Add PAM Resource (Machine, Database, Directory) records to a Shared Folder
Configure rotation settings on each PAM User record
Create a Secrets Manager application
Assign the Secrets Manager application to the Shared Folders
Set the shared folder permissions containing the PAM Users from Read Only to Can Edit
Example:
Learn about KeeperPAM in the section
Rotation can also be enabled on the using the enterprise-role command:
If you haven't yet created a Keeper Gateway yet, a new Gateway deployment can be created by clicking on Create New > Gateway from the Web Vault or Desktop App (version 17.1 or newer). We have also posted a page describing how to create a sandbox environment in :
A PAM user record holds a privileged account credential, password or private key. For steps on creating a PAM User, . The example below shows a PAM User record for an admin password on a Windows server. The PAM User record is added to a Shared Folder containing user accounts.
The rotation of credentials is restricted to the record type.
In previous versions of Keeper, rotation was permitted on PAM Machine, PAM Database and PAM Directory records. In the latest version of KeeperPAM, you will be prompted to separate the PAM Resources from the PAM User. See the documentation for more info.
See
More information on: , and
Add a to the Secrets Manager application
Create a which ties everything together
Assign rotation settings to the records
For automation of Rotation capabilities, supports KeeperPAM rotation using the following commands:
Keeper Rotation can also update the "log on" credentials for Windows service accounts and scheduled tasks. See the documentation.
Keeper supports importing in bulk from JSON format. See the section for more details.
On the "Rotation Settings" section of the PAM User vault record, you can configure how credential rotation is managed.
Rotation Type
Specifies which type of rotation is being performed (and which protocol is utilized).
Required "General", "IAM User" or "Run PAM Scripts Only". See below for details.
PAM Resource
For General rotation type, specifies the PAM Resource record which can provide the necessary privilege. For IAM User rotation type, specifies the PAM Configuration utilizing cloud APIs.
Required only for "General" and "IAM User" rotation types
Rotation Schedule
Rotation can be performed on-demand or on a specific schedule.
Password Complexity
Applies to password-based rotations, not PEM keys.
Select "Show More" to control special characters and symbols.
Keeper supports 3 different types of rotation:
General: Uses native protocols for performing the rotation, such as LDAP, Databases, SSH keys, etc.
IAM User: Uses the cloud-specific APIs for performing rotation, such as AWS IAM users and Azure managed resources. In this case, only the PAM Configuration is required since it contains the necessary
Run PAM scripts only: Skips the standard rotation and only executes the attached PAM Scripts.
To complete the Rotation setup, you need to select a resource, which depends on the rotation type.
For a "General" rotation, the Keeper Gateway uses a native protocol for performing the necessary rotation, and the rotation will be executed on the associated PAM Resource supplied. If necessary, the rotation will use the associated administrative credential on the PAM Resource.
In the example below, a Windows service account password is going to be rotated on the associated Windows Server.
For an "IAM User" rotation type, the Keeper Gateway will use the referenced PAM Configuration to determine which APIs and methods are used to perform the rotation. In the example below, an IAM user in AWS will use the "AWS (US-WEST-1)" configuration.
When using the IAM User rotation method, it is assumed that the Keeper Gateway either inherits its privilege from the instance role policy, or through explicit access keys that are provided on the PAM Configuration record.
The PAM User record holds the credential that is being rotated.
The Rotation Settings of the PAM User record references a specific PAM Machine, PAM Database or PAM Directory resource. This is the target resource where the rotation is performed.
The Keeper Gateway uses the Admin Credential associated to the PAM Machine, PAM Database or PAM Directory resource to perform the rotation with native protocols.
For AWS and Azure managed resources, Keeper uses Instance Role permission of the Gateway, or specific PAM Configuration secrets to perform the rotation with APIs.
Below are some examples of PAM User records.
Windows Domain Admin
Windows Domain User with post-rotation scripts
AWS IAM User
Database user
Azure AD User
For advanced scheduling, see the .
The rotation schedule can be set on a specific interval, or using a .
